


Mother Knows Best

by notimmortal



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And Jeremy's mom was kinda inspired by the mom-house from "Smart House", Angst with a Happy Ending, Classic DCOM, FOR CLARIFICATION I refer to the Squip as Jeremy's mom, I was just picturing that lady the entire time I was writing this, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Like there is in all my fics, Literally so far from canon, M/M, So whenever you see 'his mom' he means the Squip, Sort of? - Freeform, The Squip is Jeremy's mom, There is a fair bit of crying in this fic, Unrelated but I love Smart House, anyway, i think that's all, references to Keanu Reeves being immortal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-14 02:28:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16031096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notimmortal/pseuds/notimmortal
Summary: “But I can sense that you’re not responding well to either of these forms. If I’m reading your memories right… Oh. I see.”“Wha- What do you see?” Jeremy asked, but he was ignored. Before his eyes, the Squip was glitching and changing, forming something -someone- new. “Squip?”The glitching faded away to reveal the perfect image of Jeremy’s mother. “An odd choice, considering what happened in the past,” the Squip spoke, perfectly replicating his mother’s kind yet dismissive tone. “But if this is what it takes.”





	Mother Knows Best

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello!
> 
> I'm not 100% sure where this idea came from, it just popped into my head so I ran with it.   
> Like I said in the tags (but idk who really reads those so) I refer to the Squip as Jeremy's mother. It makes more sense in the context of the story, as the Squip forces Jeremy to think of it like that. Hope that makes sense.  
> Anyway.  
> Smart House is a solid movie and I'm not sure why I thought about it while writing this but I did, so there's that fact for ya.  
> Hope you enjoy!

“You look like Keanu Reeves!” Jeremy choked out in surprise. The Squip had finally booted up (and made him look like a fool), and was standing in front of him in all his Keanu-esque glory.

 

“My default mode,” The Squip said. “You can also set me for Sexy Anime Female with Tail,” Jeremy opened his mouth to explain that Keanu was fine, but the Squip kept talking. “But I can sense that you’re not responding well to either of these forms. If I’m reading your memories right… Oh. I see.”

 

“Wha- What do you see?” Jeremy asked, but he was ignored. Before his eyes, the Squip was glitching and changing, forming something -someone- new. “Squip?”

 

The glitching faded away to reveal the perfect image of Jeremy’s mother. “An odd choice, considering what happened in the past,” the Squip spoke, perfectly replicating his mother’s kind yet dismissive tone. “But if this is what it takes.”

 

“What the fuck!” Jeremy cried out, trying to scramble away from the Squip, but something stopped him. His legs stopped working. “I- What- Stop this! Just… Change back into Keanu Reeves or something, anything but this!”

 

His mo- The Squip studied him for a moment, tilting it’s head to the side just like his mother used to. “No, I don’t think I will. This form gets a response from you, I think it will do just fine. Now come along, Jeremiah,” Jeremy shuddered upon hearing that name in his mother’s voice. “We have work to do.”

 

***

 

Hearing his mother hiss out that everything about him was terrible wasn’t necessarily a new phenomenon in Jeremy’s life. Near the end of his parent’s marriage, she had gotten downright nasty at some points, telling Jeremy that he was worthless, that he didn’t deserve her love. He never really understood what made her start to hate him so much, but his life improved so much once she left.

 

And now it was like she was back and worse than before.

 

“What did we say about masturbation, Jeremiah?” the Squip asked tauntingly, sending a shock through Jeremy’s entire body.

 

“I was… Just going to check my email.”

 

“You shouldn’t lie to your mother, Jeremiah. And you shouldn’t engage in such revolting activities. Especially not with your mother around,” the Squip really did have all his mom’s mannerisms down. The way she put her hand on her hip when she was getting annoyed, the way she smiled with her mouth but her eyes formed more of a glare, the way she patted his hair when she was trying to prove her point, suggesting that he was beneath her. The stupid thing even got the way she  _ smelled _ right, like lavender, honey, and a bottle of red wine. Jeremy could picture her perfectly, holding the empty glass, refilling it for the God-only-knew-how-many-nth time. 

 

Shaking his head as if that could clear the thoughts, he looked back at the Squip. “But you’re not my mother.”

 

Another shock raced down Jeremy’s body. His mo- The Squip leaned closer to him, grabbing his face the same way his mother used to when she was trying to drive home a point. “Listen carefully, Jeremiah. For all intents and purposes, at least within the confines of your mind, I am your mother. And you will listen to me as if that were true. Remember, Jeremiah, you can’t just listen. You have to  _ obey _ ,” Jeremy nodded, fear that he hadn’t known in years shaking him to his core. His mom released his face. “Good. Now, repeat after me: Everything about you is so terrible.”

 

“Everything about me is just terrible,” Jeremy’s eyes shot to his feet. He couldn’t bring himself to look at the manifestation in front of him. 

 

“Everything about you makes me want to die.”

 

“Everything about me makes me want to die,” A tear slipped down Jeremy’s cheek. His mom brushed it away with a sneer.

 

“Pathetic, Jeremiah. This is no reason to cry. You deserve this. You know you deserve this.”

 

“I deserve this,” Jeremy repeated, fighting back another tear.

 

His mom patted him on the head, lifting his chin so he had to look her in the eyes. “Soon you’ll see that if you listen to me everything will be better. You’ll be better. You’re going to be  _ wonderful _ , Jeremiah. Isn’t that what you want?”

 

“I… I…” Jeremy’s phone vibrated, interrupting the conversation. It was Michael, asking Jeremy to come over. “I’m gonna go see Michael. Can you just… Go away? For a little bit?”

 

His mother sneered, but nodded nonetheless. And with that, she glitched out of existence.

 

***

 

“You’re telling me it looks like  _ what _ ?” Michael said once Jeremy explained the whole story.

 

“My mom,” Jeremy said, trying to feign calmness and failing hard. “I- It… It looks just like her, Michael. It acts like her, it sounds like her, hell, it even smells like her! It’s… It’s so real.”

 

Michael paused his game and studied his best friend for a moment. Hitting play again, he said, “Man, Freud would have a field day with you.”

 

“What?!” Jeremy sputtered.

 

“You go from Keanu Reeves, one of the sexiest immortal men, to sexy anime furry girl-”

 

“I’m not a furry!” 

 

“And now your mom? That’s some Freudian Oedipus bullshit right there if I’ve ever hear it, Jerebear. And why would you let it choose your mom, anyway? She was a bitch. How could it possible think you’d reply well to that bitch?”

 

“I don’t know… Maybe… Maybe it’s because I miss her?”

 

Michael paused the game again and looked at Jeremy in confusion. “Why the fuck would you miss her?”

 

“She’s my mom…”

 

“So?” Michael was clearly annoyed. He had always hated Jeremy’s mom, hated how she treated Jeremy and Mr. Heere.

 

“You wouldn’t get it, Michael!” Jeremy snapped. “Just because you have two wonderful, loving moms and thought that my mom was all bad doesn’t mean that she was or that I can’t miss what she used to be before it all went wrong, okay?” Michael looked taken aback. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

 

Michael shook his head. “No, no, it’s fine. You’re right, I don’t know what that’s like. I’m sorry.”

 

Jeremy wanted to say something else, but he couldn’t find the words. Instead, he faceplanted onto his designated bean bag chair. “I don’t know what to do, Mikey. She’s even making me call her mom…”

 

This made Michael pause his game once more, looking at Jeremy with more concern than before. “It’s making you do what?”

 

“Call her- it- whatever- mom.”

 

Michael was torn between making a joke about it being “Kinky!” (Jared Kleinman was one of his only other friends, sue him) but he could tell that Jeremy was really having a hard time with this. “Is it… Is it on right now?”

 

Jeremy shook his head. “When I got your text, I asked it to go away. It’ll be back once I leave, I’m sure of it, and back to saying all that awful stuff…” 

 

“Jere… Are you sure this is worth it?”

 

“It has to be.”

 

***

 

It had been a little over a month since he had first taken the Squip and, though he was much more popular now, Jeremy couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t worth it.

 

He hadn’t seen Michael since that first weekend he had the Squip, his mom saying something about how “That  _ boy _ is a link to Jeremiah 1.0. To get to Jeremiah 2.0, sacrifices have to be made,” Jeremy had tried to protest, but she shushed him with a wave of her hand. “Don’t worry, you won’t miss him much. I’ll simply block him from your field of vision. It’ll be like he isn’t there in the first place.”

 

Jeremy did notice, though. And he did miss his best friend. Now that he was in with the popular crowd, and now that he was friends with Christine (just friends, because it turned out that he didn’t even want to date her anymore, not when his life was so confusing), he thought he could be happy. 

 

But he wasn’t happy without Michael.

 

Jeremy was hanging out with Rich (something that scared him at first, but Rich was actually a nice guy behind all the Squip bullshit) when it occurred to him that this wasn’t the life he had to live. Their Squips were off since it was just the two of them (no one around to impress), so Jeremy broached the topic. “Do you ever want to get rid of it?”

 

Rich didn’t even look away from the movie they were watching. “All the time.”

 

The speed of his reply surprised Jeremy. “Really?”

 

Rich turned to look at Jeremy, some sadness in his eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the friends I gained from having this thing. I just… I will always regret taking it. Letting it abuse me, letting it make me abuse you, letting it get me to convince you to put one of these in your head. I’ve let this thing be in control of me for two years, Jeremy. This is the first time I’ve had it off in two years, and it feels so good. It feels good to be my own person, to be able to regret all that I’ve done by it’s hand, to feel sadness in knowing my friends don’t know the real me. It feels good to be a real person again,” Jeremy watched as Rich’s eyes drifted back to the TV screen. “But once you leave, it’ll turn back on. I’ll stop feeling bad about what I did. I’ll stop feeling alive inside. I wanted death before, Jeremy, but now… Now I could put a bullet in my head and count it as a win. Before, it was just something I wanted to do, but now it’s something I deserve to do.

 

“So to answer your question, yes. Of course I want to get rid of this stupid thing inside my head. But it’s not possible.”

 

Jeremy stared at the ceiling. “Michael would know how to get rid of it.”

 

“Michael? Is that anti-social headphones kid?”

 

“Yeah. He is… He was my best friend before my stupid mo- Squip. My stupid Squip.”

 

Rich looked at Jeremy curiously. “It looks like your mom, huh?” Jeremy nodded. “Mine looks like my older brother. I always looked up to him, before he left me here with my dad. He tore me down literally, and as the Squip.”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Rich shook his head. “Don’t be. You clearly know what I’m going through. And anyway, what makes you think anti-social headphones kid would know what to do?”

 

“Michael… Michael always knows what to do. He’s smarter than me. Braver than me. He would never have been stupid enough to put a supercomputer in his head just to be cool. Because he doesn’t need it! He’s the coolest person I know just because he doesn’t care about any of that, you know? He’s able to see the bigger picture, able to make the most out of every situation. He’s just the best.”

 

“Tall Ass, these all sound like reasons why you’re in love with him, not why he would know how to fix our problem.”

 

“I’m not in love wi-” Jeremy cut himself off and thought about it. Most of his thoughts (whenever his mom wasn’t around to police them) were of Michael. He missed Michael more than anything, cared about Michael more than even Christine after all this. “Oh shit. I’m in love with Michael. That’s why she didn’t want me talking to him! Even the computer version of her is homophobic, I should’ve know, I should’ve…”

 

Rich laughed, clapping his hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “Well, now that that’s taken care of, I’ll try and talk to Headphones and see if he can aid us with our plight. You try and make sure that your Squip doesn’t find out. Sound good?”

 

“Sounds good.”

 

***

 

“I told you to stop thinking about that loser, Jeremiah,” his mom said, shocking him yet again. Jeremy had noticed a few days ago that he was starting to get scars that seemed to follow the nerve pattern along his back. It almost looked as if he had been struck by lightning. “Jeremiah, listen to me!”

 

“Jeremy! Don’t listen to it!” Jeremy turned and saw Rich. “Make it turn off the optic nerve blocking, Jeremy.”

 

“I won’t, Jeremiah! It’s for your own good! Listen to your mother!” his mo- The Squip cried. 

 

“Optic nerve blocking off!” Jeremy shouted. When he looked back, he saw Michael standing beside Rich, holding a red bottle. “Michael… I-”

 

The Squip killed the words off in his throat. “Jeremiah. Don’t do this. You need me! You’ve always needed me! That’s why your life fell to pieces when I left!”

 

Michael walked over, cautiously, and stood in front of Jeremy. “Look, Jere… I’m still majorly pissed at you… But Rich kinda explained what’s going on, so I’m willing to talk to you and think about forgiving you, but you have to drink this, okay?” Michael held out a bottle of Mountain Dew Red to Jeremy. “I told you having a discontinued soft drinks dealer would come in handy.”

 

Jeremy took the bottle with shaky hands. “Don’t you dare, Jeremiah!” the Squip called out in his mind, trying it’s hardest to take over his body once again. But Jeremy powered through, chugging the bottle. He let out a scream (which was then echoed by Rich) and fell to the floor. As he lost consciousness, he could hear his mother berating him.

 

***

 

Jeremy awoke in the hospital. The first thing he saw was Rich, sleeping in the bed across the room from him. Then, after feeling something on his arm, he looked down and saw Michael, sleeping in a chair with his head on Jeremy’s arm. 

 

“Mikey?” Jeremy called out in a soft voice. Michael’s head shot right up.

 

“Jere?”

 

And with that, Jeremy was crying. “Oh, god, Michael, I’m so sorry! I should’ve listened to you, I never should have taken that stupid pill! I… I never should have left you alone, I should’ve done more to fight it, I should’ve… I’m so sorry. I’m so, so, so sorry.”

 

Jeremy kept mumbling out apologies while Michael rubbed his arm. “Hey, woah, Jeremy, calm down. It’s… It’s not okay, Jere, I won’t lie and say it is, but it’ll  _ be _ okay, okay? The Squip is gone, and so it Rich’s, so it’s not going to hurt you ever again, okay?”

 

“I hurt you,” Jeremy whispered out. “I hurt you and you still helped me. Why?”

 

“I wasn’t just going to abandon my  _ favowite _ person, now could I?” Jeremy groaned, and opened his mouth to protest again, when Michael continued. “And besides. Yeah, I’m angry. I’m pissed that popularity was more important to you than I was. I’m gonna be pissed about that for a while. But I get it. And even if I’m angry, that doesn’t mean that I don’t love you.”

 

“I love you, too, Michael,” Jeremy said softly, wiping the remaining tears from his eyes. It was the first time either of them had said anything like that.

 

“...Do you mean that in like a bro way or…”

 

Jeremy grabbed Michael’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “I mean it in a decidedly not bro way, if that’s okay?”

 

Michael smiled, kissing the back of Jeremy’s hand. “That’s perfectly okay,” Michael squeezed Jeremy’s hand. “This doesn’t mean I’m not angry, though. I’m still so mad at you. But we can fix this, we can make this work. Together.”

 

Jeremy squeezed Michael’s hand and smiled in return. “Together.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated but never required. Come visit me on [tumblr!](https://ireallyneedabetterusername.tumblr.com/) I'm always open to prompts (but now that school is in session and I'm going to college in a foreign country, I might be a little slow to write). All my ships are in the description.


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